DISCLOSURE DAY (2026) - Universal Pictures

Disclosure Day
Universal Pictures

Original Release Date June 12th, 2026
Written by David Koepp (screenplay), Steven Spielberg (story)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell
Language English (Spanish and French options available) (subtitles available)

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by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Overview:

Disclosure Day comes to 4K and Blu-ray from Universal Pictures. Directed by Steven Spielberg who you may know from a legendary career in movies, the film is a return to a subject matter, benevolent aliens, that Spielberg hasn't addressed this directly in decades. Universal's release of Disclosure Day features a wonderful video transfer and audio package with bonus features that are comprehensive, if small in number.

The Movie Itself: 4 stars

I think Disclosure Day is an extremely self-aware movie. This is Steven Spielberg approaching the end of his career, and he's emotionally intelligent enough to not just know it, but to actively reckon with it. That's what Disclosure Day is, a man who has always loved aliens both wishing that he would get to know the truth within his lifetime, and earnestly hoping that mankind will have the maturity to handle that truth without him there to guide us.

This is the guy who popularized the "friendly alien" idea. It for sure existed in multiple forms of media before Spielberg ever touched on it, but between Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), no one has ever done as much positive PR for little green men. Almost any popular depiction of aliens interacting with humans that has come since has owed something to Spielberg's vision, either directly or indirectly. And now he is taking what is most likely his last at-bat in a genre that he loves and helped to codify. I mean, he also directed War of the Worlds (2005), which is decidedly in the "unfriendly alien" camp, but that's an adaptation while the others are original stories from Spielberg, as was Disclosure Day.

To be clear, I don't think and certainly do not hope that Steven Spielberg passes or retires anytime soon, but I think he is considering and addressing his legacy. And much as I'd love to see it personally, I can't imagine he'll be making science fiction for the rest of his career. So with Disclosure Day, I feel like he is offering his final say in the matter of alien / human relations.

Disclosure Day features the kind of fleet-footed action, optimistic leads, character-based humor, knowable villains, and sense of wonder that you could expect from a Stevie Speils sci-fi adventure. It follows Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor as two unknowing stewards of a stockpile of information that a powerful government organization doesn't want to become public. Beyond just being better-staffed and better-funded, this agency, WARDEX, also has access to alien technology giving them an incredible advantage over two ostensibly normal folks. The film is essentially a chase across the country with our two underdogs, at first separately and eventually together, trying to avoid capture long enough to blow the lid off of the whole deal.

The action is solid, the performances are good even if I think the characters are a little flat, and I really enjoyed the world constructed around the narrative, but ultimately I find the film to be anticlimactic. Spielberg is not what I think of as a less-is-more filmmaker necessarily, but here he seems to be choosing to end on a powerfully ambiguous note. This is perfectly in fitting with the endings to both Close Encounters and E.T., but feels less exciting since the persons being directly affected at the climax of Disclosure Day are, essentially, everyone.

The Packaging: 3.5 stars

This is a perfectly acceptable and handsome release, with a slipcover and disc cover depicting the same image: Margaret (Emily Blunt) looking up through the silhouette of a cardinal, which is a very meaningful animal within the narrative of the film. The slipcover reproduces the image with a slight reflective effect on it. Beyond that, it's your standard black 4K case with both the 4K and Blu-ray disc inside. Nothing revolutionary, but not shabby by any means, and looks great on a shelf.

The Video: 4.5 stars

Y'all. This is Steven Spielberg working with Janusz Kaminski! In case you don't know, Kaminski is not only one of the GOATs of cinematography, he has worked with Spielberg consistently since Schindler's List (1993)! If you've seen a Spielberg film from the last 30 years and thought "Damn, this movie looks incredible!", that was in no small part due to Kaminski. Spielberg is arguably one of the most natural cinematic talents in the history of the art form and his directing style is largely built around constructing a solid master shot that demands less coverage. This requires the scene be lit in such a way as to allow the camera to move from set-up to set-up without cutting to adjust the lighting.

This has led to Kaminski becoming synonymous with swaths of light coming into scenes from natural and logical points (windows, etc.) in a way that feels like natural lighting, with some of the inherent downsides, but is really anything but. Disclosure Day has this lighting, and no matter how you may end up feeling about the film, I imagine you'll agree it looks incredible. Obviously, this is a recent movie, and that can make the quality of the visual package feel less impressive than a film that required a lot of restoration work, but I assure you: Disclosure Day's visual presentation is fabulous.

The only reason I'm not giving it the full five stars is that I think the film spends a little too much of its run time in the beige and blue area of the color spectrum. I know there are reasons for that, and the film is playing a balance game between cooler tones and warmer tones, and what feelings those hues evoke in the audience, but it can still feel a little same-y the deeper into the 2 hour, 25 minute run time you go.

The Audio: 4.5 stars

If you thought Steven Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski have had a long collaborative relationship, wait til I tell you that composer John Williams has been working with Spielberg since JAWS (1975); so basically Spielberg's entire career! In fairness, Williams did take time away from some Spielberg projects to become one of the most famous film composers in history, with titles like Star Wars (1977), Superman (1978), and Home Alone (1990) in his repertoire! The man is a legend and while his score for Disclosure Day isn't as iconic as his more well-known works, it perfectly supports the film and its themes.

Balance-wise, this release is damn solid. I've got a three-channel soundbar and didn't have any issues with scenes being either too loud or too quiet. Williams' score is minimal, focused on using just a few instruments to tease out a melody or underscore an emotion, and very few instances of elaborate orchestral flourish: a gentle clarinet melody behind a character who is feeling something uncanny, or mild discordant tones when tensions begin to rise.

The Supplements: 4 stars

The bonus features here might be small in number, but overall they pack a punch. The stand-out is the Encountering the Unknown featurette, a nearly hour-long making-of document of the kind that we rarely get anymore. Every aspect of the film is discussed by cast and / or crew from the film's conception, to its ethos, where Spielberg asks "Wouldn't it be wonderful for people to know that this was true?" and refers to alien craft seen in the real world as UAPs, which proves he's a real one. There's also tons of points of interest for the process sickos: Getting to see the sheer number of approaches combined into certain sequences, or getting a peek into how the WARDEX central control room set was conceived and realized instills that classic "the magic of the movies" feeling we are sorely lacking in an era where the answer to most questions is increasingly "I dunno, a computer did it".

Admittedly, I wish there were more with John Williams, the featurette on how he came out of retirement at ninety to do this film is less that five minutes long, and I'm certain many people would love a peek into his process. But that aside, I can't really be too disappointed. The man has given plenty to cinema, he deserves to enjoy retirement. I wouldn't have been mad at a commentary track, but with the speed at which Spielberg tends to work, I'm guessing he was busy.

• Encountering the Unknown: Inside Disclosure Day (54:03) (HD)
• Spielberg & Williams: A Legendary Collaboration (4:09) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Highly Recommended

I know that I may not sound super hot on this film, and I'm not: it's a perfectly solid film, but despite how expertly crafted it is, when its coming from such a master of moviemaking, and is obviously a subject they care so deeply about, that feels maybe worse than if a less experienced filmmaker had made it? It's still an enjoyable ride, with a few really fantastic moments, and excellent supporting performances from Colman Domingo and Colin Firth.

If you haven't seen it, I might knock my rating down to just a Recommended, because it can feel like a lot of build up to a very abrupt ending, even if you're on the same wavelength as the film. If however, you dug the movie and want to know if this is a good version to bring home, OR you're fanatical about the way a few of the greatest craftsmen in film ply their respective crafts, I really think you'll enjoy this.

THE SMASHING MACHINE (2025) - A24

The Smashing Machine
A24

Original Release Date Oct. 3rd, 2025
Written by Benny Safdie
Directed by Benny Safdie
Starring Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader
Language English (Descriptive Audio available) (English and Spanish subtitles available)

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by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Smashing Machine comes to Blu-ray from A24. Benny Safdie's solo directorial debut, The Smashing Machine offers insight into the life of real world MMA legend Mark Kerr. A24's release of The Smashing Machine features excellent audio and visual fidelity with a respectable crop of bonus features.

The Movie Itself: Good

The Smashing Machine is an interesting beast. Benny Safdie adapts John Hyams' 2002 documentary of the same name into a biopic of mixed martial artist Mark Kerr starring Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson in  what I think is his first serious and dramatic role. If not, it is at least a dramatic (no pun intended) change of pace from his recent cinematic output. What's more is, he's quite good and the film itself is very winning and engaging overall.

If The Rock is looking for a career beyond being "Franchise Viagra", The Smashing Machine is perhaps the best venue for his first big steps in that direction, all due to the environment that the story is set in. If Rock were to try his hand in a role like Howard Ratner (played by Adam Sandler in the Safdie Bros.' 2019 film Uncut Gems), a jeweler in NYC, his physique would stand out and be a distraction. By placing The Rock in a world where he will be surrounded by also very large, muscular folks, it essentially erases his muscles, or rather it normalizes them (nothing could erase those Bad Larrys). This allows for his performance to really stand out.

Personally, I think he should have gotten a nomination from the Academy. Not because it was an especially great performance, and certainly not because I think it had a shot of winning but because, for The Rock, who makes his public persona as much about the business as the craft (he is, after all. the person who introduced me to the concept of "verticals" which I still only vaguely understand) I wonder if he'll ever take a risk like this again without that recognition to fuel him. As someone who loves when actors avoid being pigeonholed, and even more so when they can surprise me, I think the landscape of film would be much more interesting if everyone got to try new things.

Of course, Rock aside, the film is very well made. The look (shot on 16mm by cinematographer Maceo Bishop), the jazzy score (Nala Sinephro), the dramatic arc of Mark Kerr's career and personal struggles, and many of the performances surrounding Kerr (notably Emily Blunt as Kerr's volatile girlfriend Dawn, Ryan Bader as one of Kerr's best friends and fellow fighter Mark Coleman, and MMA veteran / all-around lunatic Bas Rutten as himself, acting as a trainer for Kerr) all contribute to a wonderfully unique sports drama. As Emily Blunt points out in one of the bonus features, while many sports stories are about chasing victory, The Smashing Machine is more focused on picking up the pieces of the life around that chase.

The Packaging: Good

This is the first A24 physical release I've encountered and the presentation is very unique, as you might expect from A24. A card stock sleeve, which for some reason opens on the left whereas most similar packaging opens on the right, reveals an also card stock folding sleeve inside with the disc (in a plastic tray) and some photo cards. The photo cards are a mix of behind-the-scenes photos and photographs taken within the movie, as Mark Kerr (and etc.) are frequently being photographed by fans and reporters. It's a clever addition to the package, beyond just including reproductions of stills which is a lot more common.

The packaging itself is quite handsome with a lot of those film stills reproduced in really lovely color and with an overall very colorful, cleanly laid out look to all the titles and text. But seriously, I am always thrown by the inner sleeve sliding out to the left.

The Video: Excellent

I love the look of this film. I love the look of film, period, and cinematographer Maceo Bishop said a really interesting thing that instantly put him on my Filmmakers To Watch list: "Digital is a conversation with perfection, 16mm is a conversation with failure". I find that outlook absolutely fascinating and, without knowing his entire deal, I think I understand where he's coming from. When so much can be recreated "perfectly", there are no happy accidents, but by shooting on film, you have all sorts of things that are manageable rather than omnipotently controllable.

The Smashing Machine has light leak, and moments of the stadium lights shining directly into the lens which creates some of, hands down, my favorite images of the entire film. Even in its visually darkest moments, the look of the film feels like a jewel box, with deep colors and a real tactile feeling to all the textures of the movie: worn out gym mats, sweat-soaked clothing, a bowl that has been replaced using Kintsugi, the Japanese repair art where gold is used to mend cracks in pottery; it's all so sensual.

The Audio: Good

Much of this film is kind of quiet, in general. There are crowd sporting event scenes, there are arguments, but the balance was impeccably maintained. The only issues I had where some minor buzzing in my 3-channel soundbar as a result of some of the tones of the score. Also, my roommate's cats, who watched the film with me (read: slept nearby) did NOT like some of the sustained notes, but that's a them problem, I will not be docking the film at all for that.

The score, though, is tremendous. Nala Sinephro, who composed the film's music with the improvisational nature of MMA in mind, and also appears in the film playing the harp, delivers piece after piece of emotionally resonant and engrossing music. It all seems to be harp and drums, or at least I believe that was what I noticed most, and it's really fantastic.

Beyond that, environmental details in the mix were also extremely well utilized. Mark Kerr's story is a very public one, involving a lot of travel, so things like songs on a car radio, passengers on a train, street sounds, other folks sharing the gym; it all adds to the documentary-like immersion of the film.

The Supplements: Average

The bonus features here are solid. My one caveat is that a lot of the most interesting stuff presented in the supplements is repeated in the commentary from Benny Safdie, so whichever one you partake in first will likely take some of the punch out of the other. That's not to say that there aren't plenty of things to chew on, however. The one thing I was fascinated by was the realization that the prosthetics The Rock wore to better resemble Mark Kerr had to withstand a LOT of wear and tear: sweat, impact, etc. Prosthetic designer Kazu Hiro also had to sculpt different appliances depending on how swollen Mark is supposed to be at any given time.

• Commentary with writer/director Benny Safdie
• "What it Means to be a Fighter: Making The Smashing Machine" Featurette (25:09) (HD)
• 16mm Camera Test (9:09) (HD)
• Deleted Scenes:
• Bob's Burgers (2:39) (HD)
• Buddhist Temple (4:01) (HD)

Final Thoughts: Buy it on sale

The Smashing Machine isn't my favorite sports drama, it's not my favorite film from either Safdie brother, and it's not my favorite Rock "The Dwayne" Johnson film, but it is almost impeccably well made and I genuinely think The Rock should have gotten some real recognition for the effort he put forth here. Beyond just sitting for hours for prosthetics applications, or the changes in his speech and physicality that he is absolutely demonstrating here, he also put himself through a ton of physical abuse, agreeing to not only get into that kind of shape, but to perform as much of the sport fighting as was possible in the sake of realness.

I also haven't given enough flowers to Emily Blunt but she's doing exactly what I think The Rock (and so many others) wants to: stretch. Dawn is a BIG character and to describe her as "volatile" (which I did above) is a massive understatement. But underneath that, Blunt finds Dawn's vulnerability, the brokenness in the character (who is based on a real person, remember) that makes not only Dawn, but Mark as well, that much more human. 

"Mary Poppins Returns (2018)"

Long-gap sequels, or "legacy sequels", are a tough nut to crack. Picking up an intellectual property from ten, twenty, thirty years or more ago, dusting it off and making something hopefully new and exciting out of it isn't as easy an undertaking as you might think. You have to draw enough from the original source material(s) to please older fans while remaining accessible to new audience members. I am immensely happy to say that Mary Poppins Returns is one of the best I've seen.